Packaging Away the Planet: U.S. Grocery Retailers and the Plastic Pollution Crisis
Publication Date: June 11, 2019 | Greenpeace
The entire lifecycle of plastic production, use, and disposal is destroying our communities and environment.[1] “[A]t every stage of its lifecycle, plastic poses distinct risks to human health, arising from both exposure to plastic particles themselves and associated chemicals,” and most people worldwide are exposed at multiple stages of this toxic lifecycle.[2] Major oil companies profit from sending their raw material to plastics manufacturers, that in turn pollute (generally lower-income)[ii] communities in the U.S. and abroad.[3] As plastics continue to overwhelm landfills and oceans—and even invade our food, water, and air—plastics producers are seeking to increase plastic production by an additional 40% over the next decade,[4] and quadruple production by 2050.[5] The impending (and unforeseen) consequences of such a greedy, irresponsible growth model are chilling.
Many plastics are designed for single-use[iii] purposes, where customers have a product for mere seconds or minutes before the plastic is removed and disposed of. Most single-use plastics are not or cannot be recycled properly, and thereby end up polluting our oceans, waterways, and communities, negatively impacting our health directly, as well as the health of land- and marine-based ecosystems.
One of the key places where billions of people interact with plastic on a daily basis is their local supermarket. As grocery retailers[iv] worldwide start to address their plastic footprints, it is time for U.S. retailers, including behemoths like Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons Companies, and Ahold Delhaize, to take demonstrable action to markedly and immediately reduce their plastic footprints. Greenpeace has more than a decade of experience evaluating U.S. retailers on seafood sustainability.[v] And while more recent Greenpeace evaluations have increasingly focused on single-use plastics, this report is the first of its kind to evaluate how major U.S. retailers are working to address the global plastic pollution crisis.